M.C. Escher was born on June 17th 1898 as Maurits Cornelis Escher in Leuuwarden, The Netherlands. He was also nicknamed Mauk. He was the youngest son of a civil engineer and a house wife, George Arnold Escher and Sara Gleichman. Beginning school did not go so smoothly for Escher. He failed the second grade and was then placed in a special school. In 1903, at the age of 5, the family moved to Arnhem where Escher began to take up piano and carpentry. He began to excel in art and still not so much in school. At the age of 22, he attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He was only there for a short amount of time until a serious skin infection rose. He then switched to decorative arts. He then studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, who he remained friends with for the rest of his life. After two years at the school he left the school with decent experience in woodcuts. The year 1922 was one of the most important years in Escher's life. He traveled throughout Europe including Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, where he met his wife, Jetta Umiker, and finally settled in Rome for 11 years. He also discovered his love of Italian architecture, which many of his drawings were based off of. Their son was also born in Rome. Many of his influences came from Italian architecture. Though he is most famous for mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotins which he learned in the Haarlem school. Most of his art featured the ideas of infinity, impossibility, and tessallations with mathematical bases.
During his lifetime Escher made 448 lithographs, wood cuts, and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. Of these thousands of creations, he only did about 200 in color. Another interesting fact about Escher is that like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he was left handed. One of Escher's first famous works was a picture of his father, G.A. Escher in 1916. Another of Escher's first famous drawings was a woodcut called "Still Life and Street" and how it incorporated impossible reality as the ledge seems to flow into the street below and the books seem as though they are right against the buildings.
Escher displayed impossible reality in all of his very famous draws following the 1920's. One of his most famous in this decade was "The Tower of Babel" as it illustrates the Babylonian people building a tower all the way up to God. This also deals with impossible relativity and infinity. Escher gradually became more popular with his works in the 1930's and 40's where he created the lithograph "The Hand and the Reflecting Sphere", the woodcut "Metamorphosis I", "Sky and Water I", "Sky and Water II", and the most famous of them all "Drawing Hands" which depicts two hands on a single paper drawing each other. The greatest works depicting impossible relativity and infinity were probably "Relativity" which defies the rules of gravity many other scientific laws and "Ascending and Descending" show a never ending staircase which has been used in many recent popular culture events including the television show, The Simpsons. He continued to draw until his death on March 17th, 1972. His last famous piece of art was known as "Snakes" that was finished in 1969. M.C. Escher has left a large legacy. His art is displayed all around the world including The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC of the United States. His art is still up for debate when it comes to mathematics. M.C. even published a paper called "Regular Division of the Plane" in which he explained how mathematics were used in his art works. Mathematicians, like H.S.M Coxeter, have examined Escher's work of the concept of representing infinity on a two dimensional plane. Coxeter commented by saying that "Escher got it absolutely right to the millimeter". The asteroid "4444 Escher" was even named after him in 1985. Escher had an exciting life to make up for a challenging childhood until art came into his life. His traveling, curiousity, and humbleness led to his amazing success.
M.C. Escher is and will always be one of the most beloved artists of all time. It is hard to compare him to any other artist for his daring and unbelievable accomplishments. As many have said that his drawings were not physically possible, but flowed so well on paper. M.C. Escher reminds me of modern day Micheal Phelps, except of art, and how they both achieved unheard of feats. Both men pushed past limits that were placed. Escher drew things that were not mathematically correct (which is still being discussed today) and Micheal Phelps has won numerous Olympic Gold medals with a few bumps along the way. No one expected either of these men to be as successful as they became. They pushed past the odds with determination and love for their work. Another person who could be compared to M.C. Escher was the "Father of the Impossible Figure" known as Oscar Reutersvärd. Oscar created the Penrose Triangle. Reutersvärd was born after Escher in 1915 and died just recently in 2002. He is better known for impossible geometrical shapes where as Escher made his whole space preposterous.
"I walk around in mysteries. I don't know what art is. This work I have been making for the past thirty years" - M.C. Escher This quote is the perfect representation of how M.C. Escher did what he loved, and loved what he did. He didn't need it to have a label to define it. His artworks were a completely different sub-catergory of what Art was known as at the time. His ideas weren't exactly accepted but were appreciated and led to inspiration.
"Relativity"
"So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars"- M.C. Escher
This page is dedicated to one of the most talented artists of the 1920's, the one and only...
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M.C. Escher was born on June 17th 1898 as Maurits Cornelis Escher in Leuuwarden, The Netherlands. He was also nicknamed Mauk. He was the youngest son of a civil engineer and a house wife, George Arnold Escher and Sara Gleichman. Beginning school did not go so smoothly for Escher. He failed the second grade and was then placed in a special school. In 1903, at the age of 5, the family moved to Arnhem where Escher began to take up piano and carpentry. He began to excel in art and still not so much in school. At the age of 22, he attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He was only there for a short amount of time until a serious skin infection rose. He then switched to decorative arts. He then studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, who he remained friends with for the rest of his life. After two years at the school he left the school with decent experience in woodcuts. The year 1922 was one of the most important years in Escher's life. He traveled throughout Europe including Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, where he met his wife, Jetta Umiker, and finally settled in Rome for 11 years. He also discovered his love of Italian architecture, which many of his drawings were based off of. Their son was also born in Rome. Many of his influences came from Italian architecture. Though he is most famous for mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotins which he learned in the Haarlem school. Most of his art featured the ideas of infinity, impossibility, and tessallations with mathematical bases.
During his lifetime Escher made 448 lithographs, wood cuts, and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. Of these thousands of creations, he only did about 200 in color. Another interesting fact about Escher is that like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he was left handed. One of Escher's first famous works was a picture of his father, G.A. Escher in 1916. Another of Escher's first famous drawings was a woodcut called "Still Life and Street" and how it incorporated impossible reality as the ledge seems to flow into the street below and the books seem as though they are right against the buildings.
Escher displayed impossible reality in all of his very famous draws following the 1920's. One of his most famous in this decade was "The Tower of Babel" as it illustrates the Babylonian people building a tower all the way up to God. This also deals with impossible relativity and infinity. Escher gradually became more popular with his works in the 1930's and 40's where he created the lithograph "The Hand and the Reflecting Sphere", the woodcut "Metamorphosis I", "Sky and Water I", "Sky and Water II", and the most famous of them all "Drawing Hands" which depicts two hands on a single paper drawing each other. The greatest works depicting impossible relativity and infinity were probably "Relativity" which defies the rules of gravity many other scientific laws and "Ascending and Descending" show a never ending staircase which has been used in many recent popular culture events including the television show, The Simpsons. He continued to draw until his death on March 17th, 1972. His last famous piece of art was known as "Snakes" that was finished in 1969. M.C. Escher has left a large legacy. His art is displayed all around the world including The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC of the United States. His art is still up for debate when it comes to mathematics. M.C. even published a paper called "Regular Division of the Plane" in which he explained how mathematics were used in his art works. Mathematicians, like H.S.M Coxeter, have examined Escher's work of the concept of representing infinity on a two dimensional plane. Coxeter commented by saying that "Escher got it absolutely right to the millimeter". The asteroid "4444 Escher" was even named after him in 1985. Escher had an exciting life to make up for a challenging childhood until art came into his life. His traveling, curiousity, and humbleness led to his amazing success.
M.C. Escher is and will always be one of the most beloved artists of all time. It is hard to compare him to any other artist for his daring and unbelievable accomplishments. As many have said that his drawings were not physically possible, but flowed so well on paper. M.C. Escher reminds me of modern day Micheal Phelps, except of art, and how they both achieved unheard of feats. Both men pushed past limits that were placed. Escher drew things that were not mathematically correct (which is still being discussed today) and Micheal Phelps has won numerous Olympic Gold medals with a few bumps along the way. No one expected either of these men to be as successful as they became. They pushed past the odds with determination and love for their work. Another person who could be compared to M.C. Escher was the "Father of the Impossible Figure" known as Oscar Reutersvärd. Oscar created the Penrose Triangle. Reutersvärd was born after Escher in 1915 and died just recently in 2002. He is better known for impossible geometrical shapes where as Escher made his whole space preposterous.
"I walk around in mysteries. I don't know what art is. This work I have been making for the past thirty years" - M.C. Escher This quote is the perfect representation of how M.C. Escher did what he loved, and loved what he did. He didn't need it to have a label to define it. His artworks were a completely different sub-catergory of what Art was known as at the time. His ideas weren't exactly accepted but were appreciated and led to inspiration.
"Relativity"
"So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars"- M.C. Escher